Transcript

Moderator: Miguel Gomez
September 24, 2008
3pm EST

Coordinator: Welcome and thank you for standing by. At this time all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode until the question and answer session of today’s conference. To ask a question at that time please press star followed by 1 on your touchtone phone and record your name when prompted.

Also today’s conference is being recorded, if you have any objections you may disconnect at this time. Thank you.

Miguel Gomez: Great. Everyone, my name is Miguel Gomez and I’m the Director of AIDS.gov and I want to welcome you to this Webinar today.

And as the Director of AIDS.gov I want you to know that at AIDS.gov we are committed to ensuring that the public, public health officials and others have access to domestic Federal HIV information resources on our AIDS.gov Web site.

But also most important to the team at AIDS.gov is that we work to provide you information on new media and how we can use new media in response to HIV/AIDS and provide the HIV community an update on how communities are using the internet and how we can use the internet and new media tools to enhance the work we do. And I hope that all of you are reading our weekly blog on AIDS.gov on AIDS and new media.

But let’s get to the topic at hand. On today’s call we’re going to focus on new media among underserved populations. We’re going to focus today on communities of color. We hope this call will help our Federal and other colleagues who are working on HIV/AIDS across the United States.

Now we’re going to start by focusing to what extent are communities of color using new media tools. We actually titled this Webinar, as you know, The Digital Divide: Underserved Populations and New Media Use. And as I’ve already noted we’re going to focus on communities of color acknowledging that communities of color are often one of many underserved communities.

As we move forward our discussion, when we finish our discussion about where we are as a community on the internet we’re going to discuss the use of new media tools among communities of color that was created through a partnership at the National Institute on Drug Abuse called “Drugs + HIV> Learn the Link Campaign”.

And after each of our presenters speaks, we’re going to be taking questions from you. And to move us forward through our presentation we’re very excited we have Fard Johnmar who is the founder of Envision Solutions and joining Fard is Alejandro Garcia-Barbon, Senior Technical Advisor at IQ Solutions. And he also consults with the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

And again, as you heard from our operator, this call is being recorded. But most importantly you’ll be able to hear an audio file of this call afterwards and get a transcript by going to AIDS.gov. And after today’s call, for all of you online, we’ll send you details about how to access that information and we’re going to send you a brief feedback form.

So let’s get started. Fard, I really want to welcome you and thank you for joining us. And, sir, you know, here this conference call is looking at the digital divide with an emphasis on communities of color. At AIDS.gov we really, you know, try and define the digital divide by sort of modifying a definition from Wikipedia and that definition being: “The term digital divide refers to the gap between people with and without effective access to digital and information technology.”

And, Fard, to start us off, do you agree with that definition?

Fard Johnmar: Miguel, yes, and I’d just like to thank you again for having me on the Webinar; I’m very pleased to be here. And yes I agree with this definition. And I would like to take a moment to further clarify what we mean by the digital divide, which really has three components in this day and age.

The first, most traditional, the digital divide focuses on computer access and looking at the data, we’ve seen these gaps between different populations as it relates to computer use actually close over the years. The second digital divide really has to do with internet access. And the third new divide is between those with and without high-speed or broadband internet access.

And broadband internet access is cable internet and other forms of internet connections that are much more robust than what we see with dial-up connections, people are able to download multimedia content much more easily and they have access to a wider range of internet technologies.

Miguel Gomez: Fard, thank you. And actually I want to take a step back and just sort of ask you a question then and that was really helpful, sir, is then, are communities of color using the internet?

Fard Johnmar: Miguel, yes, although research has really shown that there are consistent gaps between people with color and the general population. When it comes to internet access the divide is really narrowing. In fact, certain populations are more likely to be online than Whites. For example, according to data released by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in May 2008, English-speaking Hispanics are much more likely to use the internet or email than Whites.

In addition, about 60% of African Americans versus 75% of Whites are using the internet or email.

Miguel Gomez: Sir, that’s really helpful because unfortunately we often hear that - and we need to counter the myth about communities of color and the internet. Well let’s get to what you really started us moving down the road. Sir, is there an economic digital divide?

Fard Johnmar: Miguel, absolutely, there is an economic digital divide. And in fact the divide between people who are more affluent and less affluent regardless of race is actually wider than the gap that we see for people of color. So when it comes to internet access those making less than $30,000 annually are much less likely to be online or have email access than those making $75,000.

And when it comes to high-speed or broadband access the gap is even larger. The Pew Internet & American Life Project reports that 31% of those making less $30,000 a year have broadband connections at home versus 82% of those making more than $75,000. So when we look at the digital divide we really have to focus less on the gap between communities of color and the general population and more on the gap regardless of whether a person is a person of color in terms of the economic divide.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you, sir and I’m sure we’ll have some more - we’ll have some questions from our audience about the issues you just spoke of. But I actually then want to really step into - in looking at, you know, you told us that communities of color are using the internet. When it comes to new media how are communities of color using new media?

Fard Johnmar: Well, Miguel, first I’d like to take a moment to define what new media means. I know that people have a number of different terms that we use for online technologies such as blogs, online forums, social networks, wikis and other technologies that have really been defined as a number - using a number of different terms including social media and social technologies. I’d also include mobile technologies in that - in the definition of new media.

So when we talk about new media what we actually see is that for certain types of new media research has shown that people of color are more active users of a range of technologies including social networking sites and online forums. For example, the 2007 (Yankelovich) study really shows us that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely to use social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook than Whites.

And when it comes to blogging about health topics people of color are also very active. A recent study by my company, Envision Solutions, shows that 38% of US adults writing on health-focused blogs are either African American or Hispanic. So not only do we see that the digital divide is really narrowed when it comes to communities of color versus the general population but we also see that new media use is very high amongst certain populations.

Miguel Gomez: All right, thank you. And thank you for starting off with describing briefly what is new media. And we’ve actually gotten a lot of calls since the start of the planning of this Webinar and we’re going to focus on a future Webinar on just defining what those basics are because we have an obligation to make sure our colleagues are all at the same place in understanding so thank you for that, sir.

And now that you’ve sort of moved us through, one of the important questions for us, and especially us working on HIV/AIDS is, you know, is the public - are we using the internet for medical decision-making?

Fard Johnmar: Yes, absolutely and focusing specifically on people of color, we know that people of color are not only going online to learn about health topics but they’re being influenced by information provided by what we call “Dr. Web”.

For example, another study released by my firm, Envision Solutions, shows that African Americans and Hispanics are more likely than Whites to say they have doubted a medical provider’s diagnosis because it conflicted with information they found on the internet. So clearly the internet is having a big impact on medical decisions made by people of color.

Miguel Gomez: And, thank you, Fard, because, again, what’s so interesting as a community of people responding who have a wealth of information it’s interesting that we know that across spectrums the target audience we’re working to reach is actually using the internet to find information to make their health decisions but also they’re challenging what they’re learning from clinics and healthcare professionals back on the internet.

What I’d like to do, Fard, is to see if there’s some questions from our participants. And, Wendy, will you explain again, if people joined late, how to ask a question?

Coordinator: Thank you. Once again for parties to ask a question please press star 1 on your touchtone phone, you will be prompted to record your name and your name is required to introduce your question. To withdraw your request please press star 2. Once again please press star 1 to ask a question.

Miguel Gomez: And, Wendy, do we have a question?

Coordinator: One moment please.

Miguel Gomez: Fard, while she’s checking we do have one question that’s come in directly to me, which is just about - we’ve been focusing on communities of color but when we’re talking about access can you tell us some data about what’s true about access in rural America?

Fard Johnmar: Yes, Miguel. Rural Americans are accessing the internet, however there are gaps. And Pew has done some great work in this area. And their latest data shows that only 38% of people living in rural communities have access to home broadband versus 60% of suburban adult Americans. You also see similar gaps when it comes to internet use as well.

So I think when we’re talking about the digital divide we need to focus on economics as well as location.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you, sir. Another question that did come in is can you describe the use of Spanish only speakers on the Web?

Fard Johnmar: Yes. The data on Spanish only speakers, there’s some great data coming from Pew on this very subject. And what we find is that Spanish only speakers are much, much less likely to use the internet and to have access to the internet than English speaking Hispanics.

So if you want to look at gaps within populations Spanish speaking Hispanics are much less likely to use the internet and also a lot of these new media tools than English speaking Hispanics.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you, sir. And I’d actually like to drive our listener’s attention to a new resource that Univision and the Kaiser Family Foundation just put together on the internet called “Soy” which is focusing on profiles of people living with HIV and their support networks. And we will send everyone some information on that.

Wendy, is there any audio questions before I move to our next speaker?

Coordinator: Yes, we do have questions. (Irene Miranda), your line is open.

Irene Miranda: Yeah, my question has to do a little bit more - could you flush out a little bit on your targeted demographic? You refer to your (N) being like 1000, is that your total population upon which you’re drawing your conclusions? And what was the demographics of that targeted group Mr. Fard?

Fard Johnmar: Yes, thank you very much for that question. The study that I referenced as it relates to - the study was a nationally represented sample of a thousand US adults. And so the question specifically looking at African Americans, Hispanics and Whites was based on a portion of that sample, which came to about 920 US adults.

And so the data was analyzed - there was also an “Other” category and that data was not included in this - on these particular percentages. So with regard to answering your question, the data - the overall population for US adults was a nationally representative sample of a thousand adults. And then we looked at specifically those who were either African America, White, or Hispanic to look at the percentage of folks saying that they doubted a medical provider’s opinion or diagnosis because of content they found online.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you, sir. Wendy, is there one more question?

Coordinator: Yes, we do have another question. Tonia Gray, your line is open.

Tonia Gray: Hi. I wanted to know if you could discuss the use of new media in reaching young people 18-25 with messages of prevention and testing.

Miguel Gomez: And actually, I think I’m going to let Alejandro do that. And actually it would be a really nice transition to let Alejandro talk about his program. And if he doesn’t answer your question appropriately I’ll revisit it.

Tonia Gray: Thank you.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you. And for those - we’ll have another question and answer period. Let’s get Tonia’s question sort of incorporated in my - in the presentation that Alejandro Garcia-Barbon is going to do. We’re really excited to have Alejandro with us. As I mentioned earlier he’s with the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s, “Drug + HIV> Learn the Link” Campaign.

And, Alejandro, thank you for joining us. And could you share with our listeners what that campaign is about?

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: Thank you, Miguel. It’s a pleasure to be here with all of you on sharing this information. The “Learn the Link” Campaign, when we look at communities of color and we look at communities in general, when we look at the link between injection drug abuse or use and HIV it’s very clear.

However, when we’re looking and talking about HIV we don’t seem to link HIV to non-injection drug use. So this campaign links this too, links the non-injection drug use plus HIV. And it’s because when we look at high school students we see that 70% will have abused alcohol and nearly 50% of all high school students will have abused an illicit drug.

So in the “Learn the Link” Campaign, we use TV, print and Web public service announcements, PSAs, posters, we use social networking sites and other tools to send the message to youth that using drugs and alcohol even once can have a serious health consequence including the transmission of HIV.

The campaign launched in 2005 with a PSA called “Text Message” and that was targeting African American girls. And after the campaign had been on for a year or so we decided that it was time to look at another population, another target audience, so we took the Text Message PSA and we trans-created it to reach the Hispanic - to reach Hispanic girls.

The new PSA, it’s called “After the Party”. And that PSA was launched in October of 2007. The campaign, it’s right now focusing on 12 cities across the United States in the cities with the highest Hispanic populations in the US.

And so far the “After the Party” PSA has garnered about close to $3.8 million in media value - worth of media value so we’re really excited about the campaign.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you. And the fact that - to answer Tonia’s question, that you are using Web public service announcements, social networking and other tools that allow kids to profile what it means to use drugs and alcohol, what it means - what HIV means to them, which is quite wonderful.

And allowing for that texting component is very laudable. And we encourage everyone to go to your site. And looking back to just to make sure Tonia’s question is answered. Tonia, there’s also some other wonderful programs that the San Francisco Health Department and the DC Health Department are doing that allowing youth to opt in and be able to ask questions by texting if they’re concerned about their behaviors and how it might impact exposure to HIV or if they need access to care.

So there’s a lot of ways like Alejandro’s campaign. And specifically, Alejandro, who does your campaign target?

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: African American and Hispanic girls. But, Miguel, in more than Hispanic and African American girls - that’s our target audience but when one takes a look at the Web site and the materials and the information we can also - we can also say that the campaign, it’s also providing information to general population.

Miguel Gomez: Great, so you’re reaching people where they are.

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: Exactly.

Miguel Gomez: What’s your role in the campaign?

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: Well the - my role? I’m a Senior Technical Advisor and I’m leading the Hispanic - the Hispanic outreach and to media outlets and to nonprofit organizations and taking the message out to the Hispanic communities in general here in the United States.

Miguel Gomez: Perfect, sir.

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: Now the media - the role of new media, it plays a major - it’s a major player in the campaign as the campaign it’s based on a media tool, which is the text messaging, a tool that we see more and more each day being used by teens, by young people and even adults are starting to use text message now.

We’re also using the social networking sites such as MySpace to promote the new baby of the campaign, which is the Webisodes. And the Webisodes, they’re based on the - they continue the story on the PSA “After the Party” and “Text Message” PSA it’s a continuation of the story.

And the way that we - that we did the Webisodes, I mean, they were focus tested in three cities - and two cities of United States and an online focus test. And, you know, the Webisodes have a lot of the input that we got from the teens themselves.

And we’re finishing, if we take a look at the Webisodes and when you have a chance to take a look at the Webisodes, each Webisode finishes with an open-ended question and - to help keep the teens - to help keep the person - the listener engaged to see where the question that was - the cliffhanger of each Webisode if it’s answered in the next one.

And it’s basically to let them get engaged with the understanding and understanding the link between non-injection drug use and alcohol consumption and the transmission of HIV.

Another very important tool, Miguel, that we are - that we will be using is the use of blogs. We are partnering with Blog Catalog and we have invited AIDS.gov to participate on December 1 for World AIDS Day to Bloggers United for HIV/AIDS. Blog Catalog has a membership of more than 140,000 bloggers throughout the world.

And on December 1 we will be inviting all those bloggers, all those members, 140,000 of them, to write about HIV/AIDS and we will provide them a resource page packed with educational materials, information, PSAs, Webisodes, etcetera, so they can take our message to all their readers and can also link to our - to the resources that are out there and provide those resources to their blog readers.

Miguel Gomez: Alejandro, thank you for that description especially those Webisodes, I’ve seen them, very exciting and also thank you for the invitation and talking about World AIDS Day. But let’s jump back and ask Wendy to remind people how to ask questions and let’s talk to the folks online.

Coordinator: Okay, we do still have some questions. One moment. Joe Cantell, your line is open.

Joe Cantell: My question was answered, thanks.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you.

Coordinator: Ramani Sripada, your line is open.

Ramani Sripada: Hi. I wanted to ask about - in terms of serving - I’m on the call because I serve Asian communities in Massachusetts and I’m realizing that there was really no data in terms of what Asians are using in terms of the digital divide.

Fard Johnmar: Yes, yes, yeah, we didn’t present that data during this call but there’s a wealth of data looking at how Asians use various technologies including the internet, mobile phones, social networking and what we see is that Asian Americans are more likely than Whites to use a lot of these technologies including the internet.

In fact, when you compare Asian American use of these technologies versus African American and Hispanic you actually see that Asians outstrip those groups as well as the general population. So when it comes to Asians they’re very much online and very active users of a number of technologies especially mobile phones.

Miguel Gomez: And, Fard, will you explain to everyone this - the Pew data, you’ve referred to it before and it is sort of a cornerstone of the most respected internet data. Can you explain to our listeners a little bit about the Pew data and where to find it?

Fard Johnmar: Yes, the Pew - a lot of the work that was done on internet access and broadband access is from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, Susannah Fox who’s an Associate Director of the Pew Project, has led a lot of that research and she’s actually doing some new research on social media use.

And that can be - that new data can be found - and existing data can be found at www.pewinternet.org.

Miguel Gomez: Wendy, do we have other questions?

Coordinator: Johanna Koskinen, your line is open.

Johanna Koskinen: No, I don’t have a question at this time. Thank you.

Coordinator: Jabar Burton, your line is open.

Jabar Burton: Well we have two questions. One question was: is the presentation going to be available?

Miguel Gomez: Yes, you’ll be able to go to AIDS.gov and have an audio file and read a transcript.

Javier Salazar: This is Javier Salazar. I’m actually in the same office. We also had a question around how the Text PSAs got to the young women that you all were targeting. How did you actually get the - how did you get the phone numbers to send those text messages?

Miguel Gomez: Alejandro?

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: Well the campaign is not actually that we’re sending text messages to the individuals - to the individual cell phones. The PSAs are - the first PSA targeting African American teems it’s called “Text Message” because it’s the tool that it’s used in the PSA and it is the tool that the campaign is based off - is based on text message. But we did not send those text messages to individual cell phones.

Miguel Gomez: But two of the texting campaigns, which young women opt or use opt in to receiving text messages - a wonderful woman named, Deb Levine, who works in San Francisco and provides advice both to the CDC and to the DC Health Department to allow youth to be able to ask very clear and concise questions through texting.

And to learn more about the work of (Deb Levine) there’s a Podcast of her and a transcript of her work by going to AIDS.gov and you’ll find that information right on the front page. They’re probably - are the best documented sexual health messaging campaign to date. I hope that answers your question, Javier.

Javier Salazar: Thank you. Thank you, Miguel.

Miguel Gomez: Great. Wendy, is there another question?

Coordinator: Tonia Gray, your line is open.

Tonia Gray: Thank you. My questions were answered - my previous question was answered but I do have a follow-up. In the Webisodes what is the address where those can be viewed?

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: The address for the Webisodes is - if you can see it on your screen is www.hiv.drugabuse.gov.

Tonia Gray: Okay, thanks. I just wanted to verify that was the same.

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: And there you can also find the PSAs, both PSAs, the Webisodes, you can also find other materials such as Web banners that you can put on your Web site and you can also email us and contact us by phone and we can send you campaign DVDs and campaign CD ROMs and posters and materials that we have on the campaign.

Tonia Gray: Thank you.

Miguel Gomez: Thank you. Wendy, we have time for one more question.

Coordinator: One moment. Johanna Koskinen, your line is open.

Johanna Koskinen: Yes, I was wondering at what point will you - well let me rephrase that. On top of HIV/AIDS will you be incorporating messages on (full) infection, STDs, other issues that are as important to the target audience we are focusing on?

Alejandro Garcia-Barbon: Well right now we - the National Institute on Drug Abuse, we are only talking right now on HIV and the - and the role that drugs, non-injection drug use plays on the HIV transmission. We have not had conversations yet of - as of moving forward with other STDs. But it’s a great suggestion and I thank you very much for the suggestion and we will definition - we’ll talk about it. And if we decide to move forward on that we will also publicize it through AIDS.gov and all the listeners for the Webinars and the public.

Miguel Gomez: Great. And that’s a great question to end on because then I really want to thank the participant who asked the question because looking across issues is so very important to us that our target audience we need to address our STDs, Hepatitis C, violence and substance abuse. And really want to thank you for that question and striking us on the right chord.

And, again, what I want to do is I want to thank everyone most sincerely for taking a half hour of your time to join us in a dialogue on new media. And for those people online who did not register for this call if you send us an email to contact@AIDS.gov we will send you details on where to find a transcript of this call.

And please, everyone, fill out a brief evaluation that you’ll be getting so we can improve the quality of this call and provide you information you want in the future. But not least for Federal HIV programs, for information on new media please do go to AIDS.gov and remember that we do blog on this topic each week.

And we thank you for your time and your dedication in the fight against AIDS. Have a great day. Take care.

Coordinator: That does conclude our conference for today. All parties may disconnect at this time.